Florida execution delayed

STARKE, Fla., Feb. 5 (UPI) -- The Supreme Court Tuesday issued a stay of execution for condemned murderer Linroy Bottoson, scheduled to die from a legal injection at 6 p.m. EDT, pending another decision in an Arizona case.

Another execution is still on the schedule for Thursday because the inmate, Robert J. Trease, has no appeals pending. After that there could be a long gap in executions in Florida depending on the high court's ruling.

There are 372 people on Florida's death row, including three women.

Bottoson had appealed on the same grounds as Amos Lee King, who was granted a stay of execution in Florida by the Supreme Court last month. The court decided in both cases to wait for its decision on whether Arizona can let judges, rather than juries, impose death sentences.

Under Florida law, juries make recommendations but the final decision on the death penalty rests with the judge.

Bottoson, 62, was convicted 20 years ago of kidnapping and killing Catherine Alexander, 74, the Eatonville, Fla., postmistress in a post-office robbery and then stabbing her to death.

She had been stabbed 15 times and run over by a car. Aside from the Arizona case, his attorneys also appealed on grounds he has brain damage and suffers from schizophrenia.

Trease is scheduled to die at 6 p.m. EST Thursday.

The convicted murderer waived his right to appeal his death sentence last year. Trease told Sarasota County Circuit Judge Robert Bennett that he wished to waive legal representation, mental evaluations, appeals and clemency action.

"I don't care to be here any longer. It's that simple," Trease told Bennett. "I'm competent, and I've had enough. My mind will not change."

Trease got his wish when the Florida Supreme Court granted his attorney¹s a motion to stop representing Trease.

Trease, 47, was condemned for the 1995 murder of Paul Edenson, a car dealer who was shot and had his throat slashed during a robbery in his St. Armand's Key, Fla., home.